Tomb Raider - Taking the franchise to uncharted locations

Tomb Raider is releasing on Tuesday, March 5th. Current reviews are praising the single player game (Meta score of 87%), while the multiplayer feels tacked on. If you want to see pretty hair rendering, check this game out. If that's not enough reasons, then check out Conan's review on YouTube. Various sites are offering pre-order discounts on the obvious platform of choice: Steam for $45, GreenManGaming for $36 with discount code GMG20-P4DLK-FKYRS.Anyone else excited for this reboot?

Not gonna crap on this thread with my disappointments (probably done that enough in Random Gaming Thoughts). Just popping in to say that I look forward to hearing the community reaction to it. Hopefully concerns will be assuaged and games will be purchased.

I think it should be noted that pretty hair rendering is apparently PC-only. Also, once you see it, you can't unsee it. I watched the latest trailer after the hair rendering announcement, and it looked noticeably un-pretty.

I haven't played a Tomb Raider game before, so I'm not very excited - just mildly interested. Waiting for the Rock Paper Shotgun verdict.

I pre-ordered on Steam a while back. Now I just need to find someone to play Guardian of Light with...

I'll post some thoughts sometime next week for the folks on the fence if no one else has (though since Mortus picked it up... I probably don't need to worry.) I've liked Crystal Dynamics other TRs so we'll see how this works out.

I'll pick it up eventually. I always have fun with Tomb Raider games. Conan O'Brien did a "I suck at the games" video I saw yesterday, it was pretty funny. Lara dies with a stick through her face a lot.

You know, when I watched a gameplay segment a couple weeks ago, to my surprise it actually reminded me of Dead Space 2. Grisly deaths, upside down shooting, and, most importantly, an uncomfortable balance between the feeling of survival the game is trying to convey and the intense action that's driving it.

Yeah, I was gonna say... I don't know what that dead horse is doing in here, because I'm pretty sure it belongs in a sausage somewhere in England.

Anyway... I haven't been following this game at all, but it might make it onto my list of "pick it up when it's deeply discounted" games. Though from what (very little) I've seen, it seems to have mostly put its eggs in the "modern generic shooter" basket. Not that I have a strong affinity for the Tomb Raider brand- the only one I played was that co-op (Champion of Light, or whatever)- but it doesn't seem like the new game is playing to the IP's strengths.

My mom named me Tim after the fucking mouse from the Secret of Nimh...Timmy Brisby. A fucking cartoon mouse. She denies this fact, but she went into labour with me on her way back from the movie theatre having just seen this movie. And they didn't have a name picked out in advance. So yeah.

My mom named me Tim after the fucking mouse from the Secret of Nimh...Timmy Brisby. A fucking cartoon mouse. She denies this fact, but she went into labour with me on her way back from the movie theatre having just seen this movie. And they didn't have a name picked out in advance. So yeah.

Sorry to derail the thread.

Easy solution: just retcon your name's genesis so you're named after this Tim.

After the series of very positive, and often surprisingly thoughtful, reviews that showed up this week, I went ahead and preordered it from Steam whereas before this would have probably been a "wait for the Steam sale" title for me.

I happen to like the change in design philosophy on this one from what I've seen of the game play, but obviously that's a personal preference. Certainly there will be plenty of people who will be annoyed that it's not the classic TR gameplay, but to me it looks good.

Oh, and for those that criticize it for being too much like Uncharted (seen that a lot around different sites' comment threads), remember that a lot of us didn't get to play the Uncharted series, so this is a welcome opportunity for us to experience a flavor of that kind of game design. There's nothing wrong with borrowing and adapting good ideas if the finished product benefits positively from them.

Aside from the generic elements (third-person, shooting, Indiana Jones influences) I'm not really seeing the Uncharted connection for this game, aside from a much improved, more cinematic presentation.

I mean, obviously, there are a whole lot of similarities between the two properties. I just don't see how this new iteration of Tomb Raider is moving towards Uncharted in design philosophy. From what I've seen in previews, I think the more apt comparision would be Arkham Asylum - dark, gritty and a refined focus on combat in a mostly linear game that has a few open world/Metroid-style exploration elements.

From what I've read, the classic (infuriating) puzzle and trick jumping aspects are in the game, but not forced to continue with the story. They're all in side tombs/areas, which is a great idea. I love the Uncharted series and having another 3rd person action/adventure game with strong cinematics and the gfx powerhouse only a PC can provide has me giddy. Plus, it's Lara Croft. In realistic proportions. Funny side story... when the original Tomb Raider movie came out, there was a lot of promotion from Taco Bell. The sign at the local Taco Bell had shifted a little, which read:TOM BRAIDERIS HEREMy mother wanted to know who this famous Tom Braider was. The name has always stuck with me ever since then.

Basically what I want at this point from a Tomb Raider game is something akin to Uncharted without all the extended combat sequences (combat's fine but some of the firefights in Uncharted 3 made me quit until I went back on easy mode) and more puzzles. And it sounds like that's exactly what this game is delivering.

Basically what I want at this point from a Tomb Raider game is something akin to Uncharted without all the extended combat sequences (combat's fine but some of the firefights in Uncharted 3 made me quit until I went back on easy mode) and more puzzles. And it sounds like that's exactly what this game is delivering.

Plus, yeah, Lara with normal proportions.

Clearly there is no reason for me to get this game at all. The franchise is now officially dead to me.

Plus I agree with Conan, it should be "Laura", not "Lara" dammit! You British and your weird accents.

I liked the classic TR adventure/puzzle gameplay, so I’m a little disappointed that it’s being downplayed in favor of the action elements. However, I’ll probably still pick this up if/when it hits OS X.

I'm not buying this game because it contains a graphic rape scene that is unnecessary, degrading, and just disgusting. For shame.

Now don't start that again.

See, here's the thing.

I don't really care how the scene is portrayed, because I feel like a Tomb Raider developer who is going to make that a core part of their marketing is likely to be really fucking care about how it's done. But I still have a visceral feeling about it, and I'm just not comfortable with the idea of that scene. I guess it's just that I'm concerned that playing it in the wrong mindset might just ruin the whole thing and leave me feeling negative.

Oh, and for those that criticize it for being too much like Uncharted (seen that a lot around different sites' comment threads), remember that a lot of us didn't get to play the Uncharted series, so this is a welcome opportunity for us to experience a flavor of that kind of game design. There's nothing wrong with borrowing and adapting good ideas if the finished product benefits positively from them.

This Uncharted comparison always annoys me. I have played two Uncharted games and about 4 TR games. How can TR be taking ideas from Uncharted when TR was around before and had all the same aspects. Fair enough, the combat mechanic was poor in TR but combat is not the draw in these games.Its the exploration and TR is WAY better at that aspect than Uncharted.Just look at TR Anniversary, Legend or Underworld to see.

Oh, and for those that criticize it for being too much like Uncharted (seen that a lot around different sites' comment threads), remember that a lot of us didn't get to play the Uncharted series, so this is a welcome opportunity for us to experience a flavor of that kind of game design. There's nothing wrong with borrowing and adapting good ideas if the finished product benefits positively from them.

This Uncharted comparison always annoys me. I have played two Uncharted games and about 4 TR games. How can TR be taking ideas from Uncharted when TR was around before and had all the same aspects. Fair enough, the combat mechanic was poor in TR but combat is not the draw in these games.Its the exploration and TR is WAY better at that aspect than Uncharted.Just look at TR Anniversary, Legend or Underworld to see.

I never got a chance to play the Uncharted series, so I couldn't say. It seems to be a common refrain though. My limited impression from watching videos of Uncharted is that it didn't do any one thing in a particularly revolutionary way, but it did put elements together in a compelling whole (good storytelling, good visuals, good production values), so I agree with you there. It's also pretty obvious that the TR devs did see that Uncharted evolved the Tomb Raider genre in a direction that was attractive, and I guess I don't have a problem with them borrowing ideas that they felt made for a more entertaining experience.

Oh, and for those that criticize it for being too much like Uncharted (seen that a lot around different sites' comment threads), remember that a lot of us didn't get to play the Uncharted series, so this is a welcome opportunity for us to experience a flavor of that kind of game design. There's nothing wrong with borrowing and adapting good ideas if the finished product benefits positively from them.

This Uncharted comparison always annoys me. I have played two Uncharted games and about 4 TR games. How can TR be taking ideas from Uncharted when TR was around before and had all the same aspects. Fair enough, the combat mechanic was poor in TR but combat is not the draw in these games.Its the exploration and TR is WAY better at that aspect than Uncharted.Just look at TR Anniversary, Legend* or Underworld to see.

The exploration and puzzle solving TR did much better than Uncharted, you're right. That's because Uncharted is a third-person shooter with some exploration elements in place of a corridor crawl to break up the combat sections.

The TR series has always been (with the exception of Legend) an exploration, navigation challenge and puzzle solving series with a couple of enemies in between puzzles to break them up. All of the reviews that I've read more or less agree on one thing: Combat is brought to the forefront. Even if it's better than Uncharted's that turns is into chasing some part of the market that Uncharted found success in. Sure, the puzzles are still there: in side rooms. To me, it sounds like the core of the series has been swapped with a third-person shooter.

*Legend is a perfect example of how not to do a Tomb Raider game. Dozens of enemies around every turn made it feel more like a shooter. On top of that the puzzles that existed were very unchallenging and single room. You never saw a puzzle that required you to navigate to another room, solve a puzzle in there in order to open up some element of the 'master' puzzle.